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Topic: Yamaha PSS-560 and 570 (Read 468 times)

Not sure if I can post about the PSS (PortaSound) keyboards in this category or not. But I thought I would ask about it simply because I wanted to know other peoples opinions and if they could answer any questions about it. The specific keyboard I am mentioning is the PSS 560/570.

From what I noticed they seem to be the same keyboard, with only color scheme differences. The PSS 570 was a newer version of the PSS 560. If I am not correct about that, let me know.

Does anyone know how much it retailed for when it was new? I am guessing about $280.

I have had this sitting in my closet for awhile and thought I would play it again.

I like how I can re-voice the auto accomp on the rhythm and also change the melody of the auto accomp bass and chord, while not changing the rhythm.

I also like the Custom Drummer feature. With the 5 step sliders you can create 100 different rhythm patterns for each rhythm.

The other feature I like is the Digital Synthesizer feature. By just pressing the on/off button you could create your own new voices/orchestra sounds. I also like how you could use the Digital Synthesizer sounds and the auto accomp re-voice as well if needed.

Another feature (which seems to kind of be a hidden feature) is if you used the sliders, but did not select the ON button you could alter the sounds of each voice/orchestra.

My favorite voices are "Cosmic" and "Saxophone". Although the Saxophone does not sound real, it has a distinct sound of it's own. The best way I could describe it is a digital sounding synthesized piano.

Yamaha also sold a lower end version of the 560/570, called the 460/470...it had less features and the ryhtms were analog. The 560/570 was all PCM digital and I think contained two soundcards.

From what I noticed this seemed to be the high end model of the PSS series, kind of the the PSR-e453 today.

For the price range it did more than any Yamaha keyboard under $600 does today. It was also fairly easy to use with live control features.

The only con would be the fact it did not have Midi capabilities.

What I was wondering is if Yamaha had created any other keyboards after this the PSS 560/570 that had all the sliders and customization?

For some reason I can't seem to include a photo of this keyboard, but you can simply look it up and find out what it looks like and find out about the effects.